188 Far VI Capital. 
artificial manures ; or a somewhat better manui'e (but of what 
precise quality and worth it will be hard to determine), to be 
taken at a valuation ; or else some good bullock-dung, coupled 
with a bill, which he cannot very well tax, for percentages on 
feeding-stuffs consumed by his predecessor. 
The alternatives are none of them very satisfactory : the second 
being probably the least so, as most matter of guess-work ; the 
first perhaps least riskful to the individual, if the land has 
a good staple, so as to bear for a while the forcing of artificials ; 
the latter decidedly for the public weal as maintaining the fer- 
tility of the soil, and therefore to be adopted, if it can be done 
with proper security for the interests of both parties concerned. 
One practical difficulty will be, that oilcake, <Scc. supplied in 
scanty allowances to growing stock will not leave as rich a 
residuum as if given largely to old fat beasts. Any covenanted 
allowance therefore should be moderate, if not low, whereas in 
practice it seems either not to be recognized at all, or else very 
highly estimated. 
There is another item not included in this estimate, which is 
often of much importance in a farm valuation — that of the allow- 
ance for straw. 
Whenever the sale of this article is not specifically authorized 
under definite conditions, it is important that any allowance 
made under this head, whether on account of its value as food 
for off-stock, or in default of the fulfilment of some obligation 
to thresh and carry out corn, should not creep up into exag- 
gerated proportions. 
Where custom only is the rule, the area to which such custom 
applies is necessarily ill defined ; at different centres clearly 
opposite customs prevail ; between them may lie much border 
or debatable ground, or ground which the ingenuity of lawyers 
may make appear such. When there is any really intricate conflict 
of custom, so much of technicality is involved that a town 
attorney has a difficulty in preparing the brief, a purely legal 
advocate in eliciting the facts, the judge in seeing the bearings, 
and the jury, especially a town jury, in deciding on the merits 
of the case. The bias will probably be in favour of the claim 
for enlarged compensation ; the lawyer probably thinking that 
he who has a right has a, full right; the middle-class juryman 
readily adopting a view which is apparently favourable to one, 
and not so obviously at the cost of another member of his own 
class ; and thus the capital required for stocking a farm may be 
increased to the injury of the community at large, but especially 
that of estates in the neighbourhood, for in this, if in any case, 
" tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet." 
These remarks are intended rather to call attention to sound 
